July 23, 2001.
The
obviousness of the Mondayesness made it unnecessary for
either
the father or the son to make any verbal note thereof;
in
loose fitting, comfortable silence they poured coffee in the kitchen,
then
took their cups out on the east wing patio to sip
as
they watched the other sun rise.
When
they were on their second cups, the patriarch finally spoke:
“Just for fun kid, consider
this:
this, Thing, around which my
whole life has revolved,
(and in which you are now firmly
into -- up to your inner arm pits),
what would be its ideal presentation?
If a man who had finally come
to understand fully the aim & nature of, This Activity decided
to then make available what he had learned through his own experience
-- for the truly interested --
what would he conclude was the
best way to go about it?”
The
elder arose with empty cup,
and
headed back to the breakfast nook, still talking,
as
the younger walked beside him, still listening.
”I suggest to you that the first
thing that would strike him would be
that the highest degree of efficiency
could best be achieved through a total break with This Activity’s
identifiable past,
and I further suggest that this
is about how he would go about
this undertaking:
he would have a place with open
doors where he would talk about, This-kind-of-thing,
but the place would have no
name,
the subject of his talks would
never be mentioned,
and he would never use any terms
which people generally identify as
being related to be, This-sort-of-activity:
never would he utter the words:
Awakening,
Enlightenment,
or, consciousness-&-the-mind,
in any metaphysical sense -- AND,
if an attendee ever asked anything
about his talks having a name;
or what was their, real topic,
or anything about anything they
had already heard of before,
they would never be allowed
to return & hear him speak again.”
As
he refilled both of their cups, the father said to the son:
“As always, I am moved to remind
you that I am not really talking about some man giving public lectures
to other men,
I am talking about the world
that goes on inside of your thoughts,
and ‘tis at that refined level
that what I say to you has practical value.”
They
walked back to their out of doors seats, and after settling back in,
the
larger of the two continued his storytelling.
“So,
consider what I sketch:
If a man who, from his own life
& efforts,
truly understood the precise,
physical nature of, ‘Being Awake’
were to set up what he knew
to be the absolute best & most efficient,
‘School’ -- means of conveying
his understanding of the facts –
the school would have
no name;
its teaching, no course descriptions,
and its terminology, totally
unconnected to anything in the past.
In any routine circumstances,
(say at an ordinary college),
such an approach of course would
be unabashed folly,
and a predictable failure:
no sane student would be interested
in a class that had no title,
no course topic indicated, and
in which the instructor never used familiar terms which the students believed
would be in order, and informative.
No thoughts in the ordinary mind
of any ordinarily, rational person
would lead them to pursue such
a course of, apparent study;
normal human thinking is simply
not equipped to deal with such a thing,
and will/can only notice it
long enough to dismiss it as insanity --
-- and so it should:
that is the proof of its potency,
if you take all of what I am
saying as occurring in your own head.”
The
sun was well above the visible horizon now,
(in
more ways than one).
”So: set this scene inside your
own head;
picture that therein exists,
A
School-For-Awakening,
its curriculum consisting entirely
of thoughts about, Waking
Up
that you have picked up from
various expert, outside sources;
in the ordinary world this would
be the expected & the norm;
an institute of higher learning
is
a repository and safe voucher of
the wisdom that has gone before,
and is the basis of all held now;
you would want professors who
were completely steeped-in,
respectful-of, and dedicated-to
the ideas of their predecessors;
if you are studying mathematics,
you do not want someone who teaches that two plus two equals five;
in the standard mental world
of man, ordinary mental facts rule,
but in the non standard realm,
(sought for by the few),
an entirely different situation
-- if things are optimized -- reigns.”
Heat
of full daytime began to creep up onto the patio,
as
both father & son squinted upward
into
the expanding, embracing rays.
“So, my boy, picture, (to momentarily
resort to such terms):
you want to Wake up your
consciousness to a more
Enlightened, and Liberated
state, but now you pursue your efforts
having abandoned all such descriptions
-- even to yourself –
and ignoring any thoughts that
come bearing reference to anything
you have read or heard about
before that apparently concerns such a feat,
in other words:
each day, at a place in your
home town, (your head),
lectures are presented on a
subject that is never named,
that is the focal point of your
non-physical existence,
and about which you can ask
no questions -- no
dumb questions,
(which would be any questions
related to anything that
you had had thoughts about previously).
Just lean back, relax and picture
it,
for that would be the absolute
best possible,
School For Getting To The Bottom Of Everything,
that any man could ever attend;
it is indeed the only, Graduate
School for finally -- getting
it.”
The sun was plenty hot now.
J
Later
that day, (after reminding him, [& you], again that everything
ever described in these writings takes place -- or should take place
-- inside of one man),
the
father further said to the son:
”Your more distant kin, who
no longer deal with me directly,
sometimes still communiqué
with me,
and primarily to register their
frustration with what they
say I have previously told them
about this, Certain Activity.
They say they have listened
intently to my words,
and attempted to follow my suggestions,
and yet feel, more and more
as though they are simply,
running-around-in-circles;
accomplishing nothing,
almost going crazy while going
nowhere.
I remember well being where they
are now,
and fully understand the nearly
intolerable irritation & frustration,
so,(figuratively speaking),
I say that I am, 'puzzled-by'
people’s almost total failure
to question what is going on inside of them
that causes them to at first
apparently,
comprehend what I am talking
about,
then later makes them claim
they are confused by it,
instead of them trying to somehow
lay the blame on what was said.
Literally, I am not puzzled by
this at all,
since this natural disinclination
to ask such questions of yourself is in fact
the very foundation on which
rests this confusion & frustration.
It takes specific & consistent
effort for a man to ever suddenly realize
the simple fact that the pleasure
he receives from reading
comes not from the ideas expressed
by the author,
but from ideas that the reading
causes to appear in his head.
Thus do those of your relatives
who, for some reason along the way, lose-a-direct-connection-to-me,”
(remember,
all of this is still just inside
of one man’s head), “Always then begin to
find fault with what they believe
they have heard me say about
achieving the goal,
and never turn their attention
in the begging,
profitable direction
of asking themselves: ‘What
is the fault of this thing acting
within my head that first says
it has grasped what it has heard
about all of this,
then, in spite of this self-certainty,
says that it: "Still doesn’t
--
Get it."'
Men blame the data --
and never the processor:
an approach which would ultimately
bring them face to face with the goal.
As soon as man began to have
thoughts,
he had to have the thought that
there is a, 'meaning to life’ --
that there is some special something
about being alive, TO get;
and that is where every man’s
ability to process thoughts
is nailed, almost inextricably,
to the floor.
An intelligent, originally sincere
person,
hears about an alternative,
though strictly, individual
way of processing information,
and determines that is what
they want,
and after ingesting all of the
ideas about it that they can hold,
they begin to experience cramps
& frustration,
and rather than then undertaking
an examination of their
own stomach & digestive
system, they complain about the food,
yet still sit more or less at
the table, while incessantly
picking at the left-overs
-- they have -- left over.
Everyone who ever tries to achieve
the so-called,
Awakening & Enlightenment
falls to a frustration that
is completely beyond the experience
of ordinary men, even under
the direst of physical circumstances,
and yet, the frustration SHOULD
BE the supreme clue to the alert.
A truly perceptive man would
finally ask himself:
‘Why does everything I have
read & thought about regarding changing my state of awareness only
seem to frustrate me -- and not change me?
How can it all make such perfect
sense when I first hear it,
then ultimately, take me nowhere?
Is it the idea itself which
is faulty? No!
I can feel with certainty, into
my marrow, that the idea is real,
valid & achievable --
so if the concept is not faulty –
what IS the hold up?’
and there my boy,
is the very spot where most
of your relatives meet their end:
they correctly describe a feeling
of,
hopelessly, chasing-their-own-tail-of-knowledge,
but as close as they then are
to the secret,
few finally ever recognize that
what they should now be looking at
is the nature of the, Thing,
(whatever it may prove to be),
that will engage in such a thoroughly
foolish & futile act AS -- chasing-its-own-tail.
This supreme & unavoidable,
frustration,
is the key -- not the lock;
it is your way of escape --
not your jailer.
Wake
up son of mine -- wake up;
wake
up and get on the trail of that highly suspicious smell.”
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